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Daniel Pipes in FrontPage discusses the Bill Hobbs case (news links in the original):
Who would have thought that Belmont University of Nashville, Tennessee, would apply the Islamic law to its staff? But just that happened earlier this month.Bill Hobbs, a Republican political advisor, blogger, and news writer for Belmont, which bills itself as “the largest Christian university in Tennessee,” was upset in February 2006 about the cowardice of the American media in not publishing the Danish cartoons. So he drew a primitive cartoon of his own and posted it on his personal site. It sat in obscurity until April 5, when a Democratic political operative, Mike Kopp, wrote about it, calling it:
a bizzare page with the heading Draw Mohammed that spotlights a stick drawing of the Prophet Mohammed holding a bomb. The cartoon is entitled “Mohammend Blows.” Under the cartoon Hobbs issues an invite to “exercise your right to free expression by drawing pictures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed”. He ends the post with the phrase “Here’s my first mo-toon.” All this was posted at 12:40 pm, on Friday, February 24, 2006.Hobbs responded within a few hours on Kopp’s website, writing (spelling mistakes uncorrected):
I live in America, and am blessed to have the First Amendment, and am angry that the American media is too cowardly in the face of Islamofacists to run the cartoons. I posted that cartoon, and invited others to draw their own cartoons, as a way of protesting both American media cowardice and Islamist attempts to suppress free speech via threats of bombs and bullets and burning and beheading. But then I never publicized the site and, quite frankly, forgot is was up until today.P.S. I am insensitve toward religions that have a large number of adherents who are running around blowing stuff up and threatening to kill non-believers over cartoons. Yes, I plead insensitivity. I would prefer my children not grow up in a world governed by Islamofacists.
On April 13, John Spragens of Nashville Scene picked up on this story in an article titled “One local blogger’s crude cartoon, posing as principle, betrays little more than tackiness.” He included a miniature version of the page in question (see illustration). As his headline implies, Spragens (who, another blog notes, is leaving the Nashville Scene to work for a Democrat, U.S. Representative Jim Cooper) came down heavily on Hobbs:
by deliberately desecrating Islam’s central figure—“the ‘Prophet Mohammed’” as Hobbs sneered, using quote marks for sardonic emphasis—he attacked an entire religion, not a group of fanatics who pervert the religion’s teachings. Then he drew him as a bearded stick figure holding a bomb and said he “blows.” It seems bearded Muslim terrorists are the new big-nosed, money-grubbing Jews. The more things change…. [ellipsis in original]On the other side, Roger Abramson, Spragens’ predecessor at Nashville Scene, defended Hobbs early on April 14.
Nonetheless, the damage had been done. Hobbs announced in the late morning at NashvilleFiles.com, “I am resigning from Belmont University in an amicable and mutual parting of the ways, effective Monday [April 17].”
A week later, the university has let calls from the press asking for more information go unreturned and has made no statement about Hobbs’ resignation. Its silence attracted notice in the blogosphere (for example, from Hugh Hewitt) but still not a word was forthcoming.
Although it was an article in the Nashville Scene that prompted the resignation, that publication’s editor, Liz Garrigan, came down hard on Belmont:
Belmont’s action here—assuming this was a forced resignation, and I think everyone believes it is—is cowardly. I mean, Hobbs’ political views haven’t been a secret. Why is the school suddenly putting stock in what we have to say about one action by one individual? The school shouldn’t sacrifice him just because we happen to think that something he did was pretty tacky.“Pretty tacky” is putting it mildly; Belmont’s actions have real consequences. Like the Danish corporation Arla Foods denouncing the cartoons or the Swedish foreign minister forcing the cartoons off a website, this firing in Tennessee amounts to a capitulation to Islamic law. Each surrender means the Shari‘a will move inexorably forward.
Posted by Robert at April 24, 2006 2:07 PM
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Alumni, punish your university. Let that university know why it is being punished.
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 24, 2006 2:44 PM
He should have known better. Universities are hotspots of Left wing activism. There are no exceptions. What did he expect. There is no freedom of thought or expression in any western university. It does not exist. The Left controls the shots.
He should have known that. He was stupid. There is no defence. He should be glad he is not a Finlander. In Finland you get arrested for putting a mohammad cartoon any ANY website ANYWHERE.
Posted by: thethinker at April 24, 2006 2:57 PM
thethinker,
1) It's Finn, not Finlander
2) They're just under preliminary investgation, nobody's been arrested or prosecuted
at April 24, 2006 3:37 PM
Thinker;
Hobbs did know better. He knew that he was in the satelite mecca of formal liberal education. But he was exercising his rights as an American under the 1st Amendment and took one for the Constitution. He's not stupid. He's an American, with a capital "A!" Thinker rethink your position as far as Mr. Hobbs is concerned. He took one for the home team. For all freedom lovers across the "fruited plain," and for America!!! Now if that is stupid, Then I'm stupid as well. He should be commended, not condemned. I've lost jobs because of the 1st Amendment. And I've been arrested for the 2nd Amendment. Defying laws that are totally in violation of the Constitution!!! Yeah, I'm the biggest dummy on the block. I love America!!! If Finland wants to arrest freedom of expression/speech just to satisfy a bunch that look at apeasement as a sign of weakness, it's their perogative. It will change after the bombing of a bus or train during rush hour. Or may be when the plane out of their international airport is blown out of the sky or shot down by a surface to air missile. If they want to arrest people for telling the truth about Muslims and Islam, their the stupid ones. Not Mr. Hobbs.
Dhimmi is not an option, it's a condemnation of ones freedom.
"Nuts to That!!!"
From Sea to Shining Sea,
God Bless America!!!
at April 24, 2006 3:52 PM
ANYONE CAN BE A DHIMMI
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2149297,00.html
Posted by: Churchill1938 at April 24, 2006 4:02 PM
Supercop, being of Finnish heritage myself, I think I would know what a Finlander is. Finn is short for Finlander.
And the point is they are being persecuted for putting up a mohammad cartoon.
Posted by: thethinker at April 24, 2006 4:12 PM
Hobbs is stupid because he was naive. He was still living in a land where universities are bastions of free expression. If he thought he was going to lose his job, he wouldn't have drawn that stick figure. The fact is, he didn't know, and ended up another victim of the Left, the same Left I have been very well versed with for years and years. He didn't take one for the team. He lost his job. That doesn't do the anti-jihad cause any good.
Posted by: thethinker at April 24, 2006 4:15 PM
"the satelite [sic] mecca of formal liberal
education"
A Christian college in the Deep South is a "liberal mecca"...!!!???
The fact that a Christian college in the Deep South kowtows to the politically correct dogma is bizarre, yet not surprising.
Posted by: Television at April 24, 2006 4:30 PM
Television, all universities and colleges are politically correct. I challenge anyone to find one institution of "higher learning" anywhere in the Western world were a mohammad cartoon would not cause a raucus.
The Left has taken over ALL institutions. South, North, East, West.
Posted by: thethinker at April 24, 2006 4:37 PM
"All your bases are belong to us"
Posted by: thethinker at April 24, 2006 4:38 PM
Supercop,
Thethinker is right on this one.
The dictionary definition of both Finlander and Finn is identical. Here is just one example:
Finīland`er
n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Finland.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Finlander
See also this discussion and geneaology site for people of Finnish heritage:
http://www.finlander.eget.net/
Posted by: Provoslavni at April 24, 2006 7:16 PM
Now I'll side against thethinker:
Ironman Hondo, to your post above, Well said and a big AMEN!
Posted by: Provoslavni at April 24, 2006 7:18 PM
Now my 2 cents worth: Since John Spragens "who, another blog notes, is leaving the Nashville Scene to work for a Democrat, U.S. Representative Jim Cooper" is one of the liberal activists responsible, we all need to contact Rep. Cooper's office.
Ask them if the congressman approves of his staff members being involved in suppressing the free speech of those who write against Islamic terror?
Make Spragens a political liability for Cooper and he may soon learn what it's like to lose a job after expressing an opinion.
Posted by: Provoslavni at April 24, 2006 7:27 PM
from the article, Spragens said: "It seems bearded Muslim terrorists are the new big-nosed, money-grubbing Jews. The more things change . [ellipsis in original]"
There's something wrong with that sentence. He's the one who added "terrorists" at the END of "bearded Muslims". Was that a Freudian slip? No way to know but taking what he said at face value does he wish to imply that we should NOT mock terrorists? And that mocking terrorists is equivalent to anti-semitism? So we're supposed to respect terrorists instead? Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it came to that. We're already halfway there as it is.
Posted by: Caroline at April 24, 2006 8:11 PM
This is perverse, that someone is fired for expressing his opinion outside work, in the United States. Islam is a clear and present danger to our way of life and if this case doesn't show the totalitarian future we face with the ascendancy of Islam in the West I don't know what does.
I am employed in a similar non-academic capacity by a similar supposedly religious university and have no doubt in my mind that if my views on Islam where made public that I would be dealt with in like manner. My institution has even invited a local Muslim leader to address chapel here. They have been having a infaith dailogue all year and it is open to the whole community and the dishonesty the Muslim contributors have able to get away with is staggering .
Hugh is right, the way to punish this type of pernicious evil is for Alumni to with-hold money from this collegs and universities. It is message even the most dhimmified school administrators understand.
at April 24, 2006 8:23 PM
Ironman Hondo,
i'm with you brother
From Sea to Shining Sea,
God Bless America!!!
at April 24, 2006 8:57 PM
"Hugh is right, the way to punish this type of pernicious evil is for Alumni to with-hold money from this collegs and universities."
What if the Alumni are just as blind as the administrators?
Posted by: Television at April 24, 2006 9:21 PM
"How does one 'desecrate' a lying, plagiarizing, murderous, thieving pedophile warlord?"
That's all Hobbs needed to ask?
Or didn't he know this truth he was purportedly exposing?
You have to have the ammo if your raise your weapon.
Blanks get you no thanks.
He might have added:
"That people 'worship' lunacy doesn't make it sane."
(Reminding me of an old Gahan Wilson cartoon of two explorers, in a remote jungle, coming upon a clearing where a crowd of natives bows to an empty altar, with the words "Nothing" inscribed on the base, -and the one explorer asks of the other:
"Is Nothing sacred?")
Posted by: profitsbeard at April 24, 2006 9:47 PM
To answer Television's question, in my experience many of my undergraduate peers didn't agree with any of the crud being thought, but they kept quiet; that seemingly being the cost and prudent way of getting through the big game college is. Now that they are done, hopefully many will think twice about lavishing more money on the Higher Ed. syndicate.
Many other institutions in our society that having taken the p.c. path have lost a large aprt of their funding and constituancy, such as the mainline churches.
One way a alumni with-holding of money is ineffective is that some of the worst schools (think Ivy -league) have Billion dollar endowments and such to play with. The goverment has also been more then willing to pour lots of good money down rat holes, in form of grants, fellowships and other largesse.
In the battle to save cvilization we will have confront our own demons as much as those of our civilizational challenger Islam.
at April 24, 2006 11:07 PM
Supercop, being of Finnish heritage myself, I think I would know what a Finlander is. Finn is short for Finlander.Ah. Well, I've never heard the term Finlander used before.
And the point is they are being persecuted for putting up a mohammad cartoon.Yes, and it's retarded that they're even considering the possibility that a law has been broken. But, it's possible that the case will be dismissed. I hope somebody brings up the fact that similiar "attacks" againts Christianity are perfectly legal, and even committed live on a public television channel. Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop
at April 25, 2006 3:49 AM
Supercop, Thethinker is right on this one.The dictionary definition of both Finlander and Finn is identical. Here is just one example:
Finīland`er
n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Finland.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Finlander
See also this discussion and geneaology site for people of Finnish heritage:
at April 25, 2006 3:52 AM
Ironman: not only did Hobbs stand up for the laws and values of his country, he stood up for what all decent people across the free world ought to believe, and, at their best, do believe. My country was built on the fight for freedom; it was built on many lost battles and wars, on the blood of martyrs fallen in desperate struggles or hanged for plotting against foreign tyranny; it was built on fifty years' struggle to have at once a free Italy and a free government, with a representative government and laws equal for all. And though it was Italians who invented Fascism, it was also Italians who put an end to it, and who, by shedding rivers of blood and defying torture and mass murder, took back their country. Freedom never exists unless we are disposed to defend it, and if necessary to bleed and die for it; and if a man is disposed to die for freedom, then he can never lose it - because it is his free decision, if necessary, to die.
Just a little reminder of what is at stake here.
Posted by: Paolo at April 25, 2006 9:44 AM
Thinker said;
"Hobbs is stupid because he was naive."
Personally, I don't think that Mr. Hobbs was naive at all. He saw a situation. A challenge and took it on. He knew his enemy, political correctness and liberalism. That's why he did what he did. It's time for true Americans to stand up and be heard. Mr. Hobbs did that. We are in the middle of a war not only against terrorism, but also for the soul of this nation. The left, just like radical Islam, must be destroyed. Not defeated but destroyed. And trust me, Mr. Hobbs has the backing of all freedom loving Americans and Westerners. His wound will heal and Belmont U will pay the band.
But Thinker, you're kind of hard on him. Maybe he didn't know that he would lose his job. But he took a stand and it cost him. When I signed up to serve my country, I know that there was a chance that I could take the "big ride." But no one expects to "take the big ride," even if they sign up to serve in the Armed Services. But it happens. The same thing applies in this incident. Mr. Hobbs saw AMERICANS suspending the 1st Amendment THEMSELVES!!! and made a valiant effort to remind them that, "This is America, Land of the free, Home of the brave."
And if all NON-AMERICANS can't understand that, then maybe they need to return to their country of origin. With freedom of speech, EVERYTHING is on the table to ridiculed or praised.
No matter what you say Thinker, Mr. Hobbs took one for the team.
at April 25, 2006 10:11 AM
I said, "Good Gracious Paolo, if you weren't Italian, you had to be American. Man, I loved your post.
Posted by: Ironman Hondo at April 25, 2006 10:50 AM
If this was a bunch of pedophiles with a newsletter the aclu would have gone to the supreme court to defend them...
But if its an american who is exercising his RIGHT to free speech....
Well the left cant have people telling the truth about Islam now can they...
Islam the religion from the pitts of Hell..
Is now in the USA..
Kinda like a disease..
Posted by: jingoist at April 25, 2006 12:56 PM
He should have known better. Universities are hotspots of Left wing activism. There are no exceptions. What did he expect. There is no freedom of thought or expression in any western university. It does not exist. The Left controls the shots.
The "left" does not call the shots at western universities any more than the UAW controls the shots at General Motors despite the fact that they appear to -- neither has any power whatsoever save that which is not bestowed them via government and regulation.
As far as Islam and "democracy" is concerned, they are perfectly compatible from the prospective of Muslim fanatics, provided the Muslims number over a certain percentage threshold, as they do in, for example, Malaysia.
Of course the question itself is irrelevent and impertinent, as it merely compares and contrasts one species of evil to another. Democracy, after all, is merely the enforced submission of individual rights to mob approval and adjudication.
Posted by: Mike Schneider at April 25, 2006 6:25 PM
Television, all universities and colleges are politically correct. I challenge anyone to find one institution of "higher learning" anywhere in the Western world were a mohammad cartoon would not cause a raucus.
The Left has taken over ALL institutions. South, North, East, West.
No. The "left" (socialists) first took over the *government*, well over seventy years ago, and have held it in a vice-grip ever since despite momentary toe-stubblings in the form of occasional presidential vetos. That all other institutions of any size are now socialist is a natural consequence of the fact that any which refrain from becoming so will be punished by government action. The government, for example, does not hassle Sears or Home Depot the way it goes after Wal-Mart.
Then there's the factor of government-nationalized compulsory indoctrination-camps ("schools") in the express business of sorting out those who'll chant the mantras from those thinking for themselves, and rewarding the former accordingly. Any non- purely- technical institution hiring the "best and the brightest" based upon their academic credentials will therefore be hiring either a brain-dead parrot or a committed socialist intent upon rising up the ranks.
It's all represents the inevitable -- and quite predictable -- consequences of over two hundred years under a political system in which other people's property is put up for auction via elections.
-- Do you think it's bad *here* (the US)? If so, read this. There's a reason Islamic thugs are enjoying the success that they are -- they're vultures feeding upon political corpses.
Posted by: Mike Schneider at April 25, 2006 6:49 PM
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